We had sun today!
(Bear with me, it’s kind of a big deal around here) 🙂
Even the sweaters are kind of basking- while blocking.
So I’m two for three on sweater completion this week! Woo hooo!
The Oregon Vest zipper is basted into place
So hopefully I’ll get this last one wrapped up this week!
He still looks like a crazy little baby
But he’s got Big Boy teeth!
Neat, eh?
And speaking of little babes, my cousin and his wife just had a boy this week-
So, this little White Sox bear will be shipping out tomorrow to hang with Charlie Ross.
In other news, Stashbuster sweaters are nearing completion:
Decided on 3/4 sleeves for this one, so it will be finished as soon as I can get those last few rows of colorwork done!
And this guy needs a little more length on both body and arms, but I’m sooooooo close!
I’ll sign off with the spin of the week-
That’s approximately 360 yards of steely grey Spike-y goodness! (my pick from Schoonover Farms shearing day this year)
Just over 3 months ago I sheared the first of the boys.
So, I thought it was about time to talk about how the fleece processing is going!
Today, I just finished washing up the last of Franklin/Felix (they got jumbled together).
So now I’ve got a whole smorgasbord of homegrown Shetland fleece to work with!
And I’ve already got some of it spun up-
Of the five fleeces, Griff and Edgar are the best for drum carding. Good length, but not super long, not much veg.
Chone’s fluffy texture is good for drum carding, but he’s the veggie boy, so I’ll probably have to flick card or comb most of it first.
Frank and Felix are pretty darn long. The length is good for combing, but it separates out the longer fibers from the shorter ones , and I’d prefer to keep them all together for the most part, so I’ve been flick carding and spinning from the lock. I really like spinning that way.
Realized after I took the other yarn picture that I was missing a two ply skein of Felix that I spun early on-
Frank has already made an appearance in the (primarily) Huey Oregon vest-
But he’s the only guy who’s made his way into a project at this point.
I may need to use a little bit of Chone to finish off my current stashbuster sweater (I’m getting really close!)
He’s told me that he’s ready to pinch hit if I need him.
What a swell guy 🙂
Finally got the tomatoes in.
This year we’re going almost exclusively with cherry tomato varieties (with the exception of one Cougar Red plant) as these are the only ones that ripen up reliably during our short summers.
We’re trying out a new thing this year- red plastic mulch. Hoping it will keep weeds down, and the yield up. Everywhere around here seems to be sold out of the red plastic tomato greenhouses (a perforated plastic bag that slips over the tomato cages), but we’ve got some of those on order too.
Also did some tractor-ing. High on the project list this summer is re-furbishing the north end of the sheep shed and turning it into hay storage.
Tractors are might good for cleaning out sheds, and digging post holes!
Love the tractor.
(yes it’s only supposed to be that tall) 🙂
It was pretty hot here by PNW-in-June standards- about 80, I think.
Here is Sadie cooling her jets in the sheeps’ water-
And here she is after exploring the pond (no action shot on that one… she knew not to try it while I was watching)
The poor goldfish are probably terribly traumatized.
And finally, once the lawn is mowed and I’ve washed all the pond out of Sadie’s hair, I find some time to sit and work on the sweater.
I love happy endings.